HMTech.ca

For security purposes, I always run as a limited user under Windows XP. Although it’s more secure to run Windows this way, it also causes a lot of inconveniences. One of which occurred earlier today, when I tried to disable XP’s autoplay feature.

Autoplay would scan my external hard drive every time I connected it to the computer. Not only is this annoying, it’s also a security risk, because autoplay could inadvertently execute malicious code on any external storage device that connects to my computer.

After quickly searching Google, I found two solutions. Solution #1 is for WinXP Pro users and Solution #2 is for WinXP Home users.

Solution #1: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/disable-autoplay-of-audio-cds-and-usb-drives/

Solution #2: Microsoft Article (Provides instructions on how to disable autoplay for many versions of Windows)

Following the instructions of solution #2, I opened regedit from my account and drilled down to the specified key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\NoDriveTypeAutorun

I then tried to modify the value of the “NoDriveTypeAutorun” key to 0xFF, as the article instructs, and received the following error:

Because limited users do not have the privileges necessary, regedit was unable to save the changes to the registry.

Now, you could run the registry editor as the administrator using the “Run As…” option, but the changes you would make would only affect the adminstrator account, not the limited account you are logged in under.

The only workable solution I came up with was to temporarily increase my limited account to an administrator, make the changes, and then downgrade back to a limited user.

So I logged in as the administrator and upgraded my account to “Computer administrator” (This is done from “User Accounts” in the control panel)

I then logged in as myself (now an administrator) and successfully changed the value of the “NoDriveTypeAutorun” key to 0xFF, as specified in Microsoft’s article.

As an administrator, I was able to save the changes to the registry. Afterwards, I logged back in as the administrator and downgraded my account back to a limited user.

Now autoplay no longer executes when I plug in my external hard drive and I’m still running safely as a limited user.

Related Posts

• Autorun will not Work in Windows XP

Tags: autorun

One Response to “How to Disable Autoplay in Windows XP Home for Limited Users”

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website